A Big Old Chocolate Kiss
by Marla Fair
Summary: Laura learns the true meaning of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.


A Big Old Chocolate Kiss

"Pa, you know there ain't no such thing as National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!"

Her Pa was milking the cow. He turned and looked over his shoulder at her.

No grin, so he was serious.

"Half-pint, you wouldn't be callin' me a liar, would you?"

"No, sir. I would never do that." Laura knew her pa was straight as an arrow and never _ever_ lied. "But…well…I've never _heard_ of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day."

Pa pivoted on the stool. "So, you've heard of every single holiday there is? Is that what you think?"

She puzzled on that one for a moment. Maybe, well, _maybe_ there was such a holiday in some other part of the world where they could get chips of chocolate easy, like they could get eggs. But then they didn't have a National Hen's Egg Day either.

"I suppose there could be one…somewhere."

Pa stood up and then leaned down to catch the handle of the milk bucket. "Well, this year it's gonna be here."

Laura brightened up. They didn't have any money so they hardly ever had chocolate 'cause of it being so expensive. "Did you make some extra money, Pa, so you could buy some chocolate?"

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Extra money?" Pa snorted. "Nope, none of that. You and me - and Mary - are gonna go on a chocolate hunt."

She didn't know which to be more surprised by, the idea of a chocolate hunt - or Pa thinkin' Mary would want to go.

Mary was, well, mad at Pa.

It had started simple enough. Mary and Pa got into an argument and she told Pa he didn't know what he was talking about. Pa had to correct her 'cause she mouthed off, which was somethin' that hardly ever happened with Mary since she was about as close to perfect as it got, and she did it again. Mary was older than her - nearly ten - and had stopped getting the switch a few years back - on account of she was nearly perfect.

She got it this time.

Pa'd done it quick and then hugged and kissed her sister and told her he wasn't mad at her.

That was good, 'cause Mary was mad enough for both of them.

"Pa," Laura began hesitantly, "I don't think…Mary's gonna…well, gonna want to go."

He'd started toward the door. Pa turned back and looked at her. "Did I say I was gonna give her a choice?"

Laura let out a little sigh.

_This _was going to be interesting.

It took them a couple of hours to get on their way. Mary made up every excuse she could about having to take care of Carrie, about helping Ma with the sewing and cooking and washing and just about everything else, and even about having schoolwork to do. She begged and pleaded with Ma to stay home and every time Ma said, 'No', she should go.

She was beginnin' to think Ma was in on this with Pa.

Whatever 'this' was.

Laura paused to thrust a lock of wayward hair out of her eyes. It had been fighting its way out of her sun bonnet for a few minutes and finally won. She put the enamel pot she carried down on the forest path beside her feet. It was one of Ma's best. Pa had bought it for her for Christmas a few years back. It was still shiny and was blue with white speckles. Pa said they had to have the finest. Not just _any_ pot would do to put the chocolate in when they found it 'cause of it being special. As she re-tied her bonnet strings, Laura's eyes went to her sister and her Pa. They'd stopped a little ways ahead and were looking back at her. Pa was talking to Mary like she was talking back, but she still hadn't said a word to him. Mary was like Ma. When she got mad she got _really_ quiet. Unlike her. When Laura Ingalls got mad, _everybody _knew it. That was more like Pa and Pa said that was a good thing. Pa said bottling a 'mad' up inside was like leavin' the lid on when you heated somethin' over the fire.

Sooner or later it was bound to blow!

"You about ready, Half-pint?" Pa called. "That chocolate's a-waitin'."

Mary had stopped about halfway between them. She was carrying a long shiny shovel. It was the newest one Pa had and had a long narrow head, which Pa had said was just right for diggin' chocolate out of the earth. Mary looked at Pa and then looked at her and then…well…the lid blew off the pot!

"This is ridiculous!" her sister snapped as she dropped the shovel. "There is no such thing as a vein of chocolate!"

Pa was looking at Mary in that way he had. One eyebrow was reachin' up under his curls and his lips were twisted with a little bit of a smile.

"Oh? You're sure about that?" he asked.

She had to give it to her sister. Mary stood her ground.

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"So…" Pa said slowly. "You know all there is to know about chocolate."

"Well…no," her sister admitted. "But I know it doesn't come from a vein in the ground."

"And just 'how' do you know that? Miss Beadle had you studyin' chocolate in school?"

Mary swallowed. "No, sir. I just…know."

Pa leaned on the shovel he was carrying. "So, remind me, you been walkin' this earth how long?"

Her sister blinked. "Excuse me?"

"How old are you?"

Mary straightened up a little bit. "Almost ten."

Pa whistled. "_Almost _ten whole years. My, my, that is a long time. I guess ten whole years is a good length of time to learn everything about everything."

The blonde girl frowned. "I…don't know everything about everything."

Pa's brows popped. "You don't?"

"Well…no."

"So," he said, "maybe…just maybe…because I've lived a _few _more years than you, I know something you don't know. Maybe there _is _a vein of chocolate runnin' right under that old gnarled oak tree at the edge of the property."

Mary's nose was twitching. "Maybe," she said, tight-lipped.

Their Pa had the most beautiful smile. It broke like sun after a storm. "Well, if Half-pint's done makin' herself pretty, what do you say the three of us go and find out?"

"Ah, Pa," Laura laughed. "I was just straightening my hair."

He shook his head. "That's good. Here I thought you were makin' yourself prettier and - since you're already as pretty as it comes - I was gonna have me a mighty hard time fightin' off all the boys."

Mary cracked a smile.

It was the first one in days.

As they began to walk, things began to get better. Mary started talkin' and Pa started tellin' whoppers and by the time they got to that big old gnarled tree at the edge of their land that looked like a grizzly rearin' up on its hind-quarters, they were all laughing and having a good time.

That was, until Mary saw that old tree.

Her sister stopped dead.

"There isn't any chocolate, is there?" she asked.

Pa turned toward her. "What makes you think that?"

Mary drew in a breath. "This is all about teaching me that I don't know everything, isn't it?" She paused. "I'm sorry, Pa. I'm sorry I told you that you didn't know what you were talking about, and I'm sorry I haven't said anything to you for days. It was stupid." Her sister paused again and her head went down. "_I_ was stupid."

Pa planted his shovel in the ground and came to stand beside her and waited for her to look up. "Now, you listen to me. Don't you ever let me hear you call yourself 'stupid'. You're a beautiful smart girl just like your sisters. You're growing up, Mary, and sometimes when a person does that they get to thinkin' they're older than they are and they forget to respect folks who have lived longer and know more." Pa reached out to touch her sister's hair. "I didn't punish you for bein' stupid. I punished you for bein' disrespectful."

Mary nodded. "I understand that, Pa. Now, can we call off this silly hunt and go home?"

It was Pa's turn to blink. "Silly hunt?" He drew in a breath and let it out with a shake of his head. "I promised your Ma I'd bring some chocolate home and I sure as shootin' mean to!"

Mary's face was so funny Laura just had to laugh. "You gonna tie its feet and sling it over the side of the wagon, Pa?" she asked.

He thought a moment. "Well, now, if chocolate had feet, I just might - but somehow I think it would slip right out of the rope and get away and then there would go your chocolate chip cookies."

Her sister was still sputtering. "But…but…Pa…!"

Pa picked up his shovel and held it out like a sword. "Come, fair maidens! It is time to ford yon rich brown river!"

Later that night - after they had their chocolate chip cookies baked with the chocolate they had found running in a vein under that funny old tree - Laura couldn't sleep. Mary had worn her out with all her puzzling about how the chocolate got under that tree. She looked it up in the big dictionary when they got home and chocolate didn't come in veins, it came in beans and grew on trees. She was kind of curious about that too and she knew - 'cause they'd done it before - that when Pa and Ma went to bed they'd talk about it. So, once Mary was asleep, Laura slipped out of bed and went to the other end of the loft and leaned down over the edge and listened.

Ma was laughing.

"Oh Charles, I wish I could have been there!"

"It was a sight," Pa said, "watchin' Mary's face when she found the chocolate under the roots of that old tree."

"But you said, she'd apologized before?"

"Mm-hm. She's a good girl." Pa yawned. "They're all good girls."

Laura heard the rustling of covers. In her mind's eyes, she saw her Ma turning over to lay her hand on her Pa's chest. "Yes, they are. I'm glad Mary's not mad at you anymore."

"Bein' mad is natural, Caroline. It's how you handle it that matters."

"Yes. But to go so many days without saying a word!"

Pa chuckled. "It's part of growin' up. I won't admit how many times I got marched out to the wood shed for openin' my mouth when I should have kept it shut!"

Her ma laughed too. "And you think now that she understands why you had to punish her?"

There was a moment of silence. "I'm sure she does. I hated to do it, but disrespect is one thing I won't tolerate."

Her ma murmured and turned again. She was getting' sleepy too.

And then, out of nowhere, Ma asked the question Laura had been waiting to hear the answer to.

"Charles, just how _did _you get the chocolate under that tree?"

"Who me?" Pa asked. "I didn't put it there."

This time her ma turned quick. "What?"

"Wasn't me."

"Oh, come now, Charles! Everyone knows chocolate doesn't grow underground and run in veins!"

"Oh?" Pa asked. "Seems to me we got another member of the Ingalls' family thinks she knows everything."

Ma was sitting up now. "Charles. Really. How did the chocolate get there if you didn't put it there?"

"The chocolate fairy?" he suggested.

"Charles!"

The covers rustled again. Pa had Ma in his arms. "Give me a kiss, Mrs. Ingalls, and maybe I'll tell you."

"That's bribery."

"Sure is."

Laura smiled as she heard them kissing.

"Well?" her ma demanded.

Pa had laid down and turned over in the covers. "It's gonna cost you another kiss."

She heard a 'smack!'

"You!"

"No, not me," her Pa replied. "And when you deliver it, you'd best watch out for the whiskers."

Laura sat up and puzzled about that for a moment.

Then she had it.

Mister Edwards must have put the chocolate there when they weren't looking, just so Pa could make things right with Mary.

Ma sure did owe him a big old chocolate kiss!

End


End file.
